Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction

00:01:00: Idea for action 1: create fake deadlines

00:02:26: Idea for action 2: visualise the outcome

00:05:32: Useful resource

00:06:17: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Sarah Ellis: You've made it halfway through the sprint.

Helen Tupper: Hooray!

Sarah Ellis: And this is skill number 11 and it's focus, one of my favourite topics, so I'm very much looking forward to today, because I think this is one of the ways that we can cut through complexity, the noise, all of the distraction downfalls to do more of the work that matters to us.  And I think when we don't get this right, our work takes longer and our work is worse.

Helen Tupper: Bad news!

Sarah Ellis: So, there's a very strong reason to believe about why focus matters, but I also think there are some really strong forces that get in the way of focus.  So, Helen how do we overcome these forces?

Helen Tupper: Well, just before we talk about our ideas to help you overcome it, I think we should give our listeners a little bit of credit, because 10 days of sprinting, that takes a bit of focus.

Sarah Ellis: It does.

Helen Tupper: That takes a bit of focus.  We're already, I think, already demonstrating this skill.  But for some extra ideas to help us develop it more --

Sarah Ellis: We have quite different ideas, I think it's fair to say today.

Helen Tupper: Yeah, we have really different ideas here.  So, I'm not sure if this is for everyone but I'm just being honest about what works for me, I create fake deadlines to find focus.

Sarah Ellis: I know you do.

Helen Tupper: So, I find deadlines a bit daunting, like the actual deadline.  Like, if Sarah said to me, like let's take a book, that is a very real deadline for us, it's kind of writing.  The real deadline for our book I find daunting, because it makes me worry about being late.  But a fake deadline, you see if I've got a deadline a month ahead of that, I find motivating.

Sarah Ellis: So weird!

Helen Tupper: It's really, really weird, but so I basically create fake deadlines for everything, and so I make a lot of fake deadlines.  In a week I'll be like, "I've got to get it done by the end of Friday".  No one has told me that, it's a fake deadline I've created for myself.  But for me, just the way that my brain works, maybe it's the doer bit in me having that deadline, but without the pressure of it being a deadline that Sarah has imposed on me, I don't like a deadline to be imposed, creating my own fake deadlines gives me something to focus on. 

And I have been doing this for a long time.  Since we were at university together and when your things had to be handed in, I would always create a deadline that was a week in advance of the actual deadline, because I then found that motivating and it was all gone and done and everyone else was flapping around, and I was like, "I'm done, I'm done" without that stress or that pressure of the real one.  So, I know it's a bit weird, but it I do find it really motivating and really clear!

Sarah Ellis: Well, whatever works for you.

Helen Tupper: That works for me.  Go on, what works for you?

Sarah Ellis: I find visualising the outcome motivates me in the moment.  So, we were sorting out your fake deadlines for you yesterday because I was going, "But we've got a deadline", and you were like, "Well, no, that doesn't work for me".  So, we were trying to do that together.  And then I was describing I'd been doing some writing that day, and I'd definitely been in a moment where distraction threatened to get the better of me.  I was in a really interesting environment. 

I'd actually gone to work in a gallery because I wanted a bit of space and I wanted the stimulus, but also I wasn't feeling super-energetic, you know when you're not super-up for things, so you're quite open to distraction in that moment.  But then I thought about, "Oh, but I want us to be writing the best book on learning for people's careers that they've ever read, and I want this to be really useful", and I imagine people reading it.  I think about a reader, I think about somebody in that café reading that book. 

And if I don't find some focus and get started and spend time on it, how is that going to happen?  You create fake deadlines; I wonder if I sort of create fake fear.

Helen Tupper: Yeah, I was going to say, there's such a pressure.  I would find that so overwhelming to think -- again, I'm really glad it works for you because I want you to do that kind of work, but for me, just that level of pressure about the purpose of it I find daunting, but I definitely see it works for you.

Sarah Ellis: Yeah, I find it propelling, because I think, "Well, if this sentence is not brilliant, then that reader is going to be really disappointed in me".

Helen Tupper: And I'm like, "Well, as long as this sentence is written by 4.00pm today, it'll be fine"!

Sarah Ellis: So, I think I worry about how you do it, I think you worry about how I do it, but fundamentally, it gets us there.  And I think day to day, there are so many distractions that I hear people talk to us about, particularly around technology, notifications, team messages, pressure to respond, getting in our own way, like things that happen in our own heads.  What I am seeing people doing more and more, and this is inspiration from our Squiggly Careers community, is people agreeing as teams, "How do we find focus?" 

So, I think we've both talked there about very individual examples, but I definitely now hear teams say, "Oh, well we always have an hour at the start of every day when nobody emails", for example.  Or, "We all commit to using, 'Do not disturb', if you need to go into monk mode for a couple of hours".  And they're always realistic, small things, or we set really clear expectations around when we do need responsiveness, but when it is sort of okay to not expect that.  When we're messaging, for example, if you're using Microsoft Teams, do we expect people to respond straight away, or is it within the next 24 hours; and having more open conversations about those things. So, I think there's sort of two ways into focus.  There's you individually and what works for you, but also the we, what works for us as a group to find focus.

Helen Tupper: Well, it's quite linked to having a high-trust team, isn't it?  If you can talk about, "Well, I find these distractions difficult.  I'd like to talk to you about how I can find a bit more focus", I think that's a good, really healthy conversation for a team to have.  And just on the point of distractions, the recommended "learn more from", well the expert is Nir Eyal, and he's actually written a book called Indistractable. 

He's a previous podcast guest and somebody whose advice I go back to quite a lot.  He talks about how, as individuals, we might have distractions which are more internally driven, so I'm trying to avoid a situation, that's why it's appealing; or externally driven, so it's where I'm working, I've got my laptop open and notifications on; or sometimes it's just bad planning, you're trying to do some kind of high-focus work in a time when your brain isn't really in that kind of mode. I would really recommend listening and also recommend looking at his book, Indistractable if this feels like the skill that you want to focus on a little bit more.  Focus on focus, very meta!  If that feels like the case, then go and have a look at Nir's work.

Sarah Ellis: So, that's the end of today's skill, and tomorrow we're going to be talking about mentoring.  So, thanks so much for listening and back with you again soon.